The invention relates to a door latch assembly and more particularly to a concealed safety latch assembly for a medicine cabinet of the type that is recessed into a bathroom wall. The latch assembly has been designed to be operated easily by adults while remaining basically inoperable by children of substantially five years of age or less.
The problem of small children getting into medicine cabinets and taking drugs that may prove lethal has existed for many years. Numerous attempts have been made to design safety latch assemblies that are child proof. As of yet, none of these have captured the publics acceptance either due to their complicated unlatching structure, their ability to perform as stated, their difficulty in mounting within the medicine cabinet or for various other reasons.
The transformation of our population to a drug and medicine oriented society has placed within the reach of small children, many dangerous pills and drugs that are accessible merely by opening the medicine cabinet door. The simple operation of opening the door is easily accomplished by the youngest of children once they have reached the age where they can crawl or walk. Repeated commands not to open a medicine cabinet door fall on deaf ears for children of this age. The only real way of ensuring that a child will not open a medicine cabinet door and swallow dangerous drugs or medicine is to provide the door with a concealed child-proof safety latch. Children are also great imitators and often see their parents taking drugs from the medicine cabinet, not to mention the fact that the parent gives the child proper drugs and pills that are stored within the medicine cabinet.
It is an object of this invention to permit adults to store their drugs and medicines, that are used in day to day use, within their normal medicine cabinet while also providing a sufficient, child-proof safety latch that will prevent accidental access to such drugs and medicine by preschool children.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a new and improved concealed safety latch assembly that is simple and rugged in construction, inexpensive to manufacture, easy to install, and that is efficient in operation.
It is an additional object of the invention to provide a concealed safety latch assembly that may be readily installed in the medicine cabinet in a permanent fashion without the aid of tools and without any but most elemental mechanical skills.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a concealed safety latch assembly that has components that act to align themselves in their operational positions, both on the medicine cabinet door and also on the vertical side wall of the cabinet.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a concealed safety latch assembly that may be easily and quickly placed into inoperable position without the removing of the latch assembly from the cabinet.